Tricks and Chocolate
by acidalteredfingerprints
Summary: A oneshot of Mello's first Halloween at Wammy's MelloMatt


I wrote this mostly to make sure I could write something then a buinch of angst (Yeah, Kryptonite is angst even if it is mostly going to be sweet). Originally this story was going to be Mello/Near but my beta doesn't like that pairing so I changed it to Mello/Matt, which I also like, but I think it would have flown better if I hadn't changed it ;

anyways, enough of my rambling, here's the story.

Death Note and Characters-I don't own them, don't claim to, don't plan on trying to.

**Tricks and Chocolate**

The chocolate bar had no note to tell the ten year old blonde boy who had placed it under his pillow. Instead, a drawing of a pumpkin (jack-o-lantern, rather) with a crown and what could pass for a scepter was sketched onto a scrap of paper beside the candy. Uncertainly, Mello shoved the drawing into his pocket and climbed out of the bottom bunk of the bed he shared with Near, leaving the chocolate bar untouched on his white sheets.

Roger had informed him when he first arrived at Wammy's a few months ago that Halloween was one of their most important holidays; a near-religious celebration that lasted all day. Still, when Near and their other roommate Matt had attempted to wake him up at 7 in the morning for the beginning of the party, he had pulled the covers over his head and flatly refused to move.

The party…Mello rolled his eyes, he would have to join it eventually. Without bothering to get dressed (it was Halloween after all, this was just his costume) the orphan put on his black fuzzy slippers and left the room. The rest of the house was drowning in Halloween decorations- black widows hung from the ceiling, eerily smiling candy corn watched from the walls and so on. This didn't surprise Mello, the halls had been like this for the past two weeks; what startled him were the copious amounts of pumpkins, mummies, ghosts and vampires running throughout the house.

"Mello-kun!" Matt's voice came from the central dining room, where a red-haired spectre was grinning and waving at Mello to come closer. "Mello-kun, come here! We're going to start pumpkin carving soon."

The blonde felt a smile pull lightly on his lips, while Near got on his nerves for being so apathetic and logical all the time, Matt's happy and laid-back nature was endearing to him, even if it meant Mello occasionally had to yell at the boy to do his homework or clean up whatever mess he made of their room. Though he worshipped L as much as any of the boy's at Wammy's, Matt had no ambition of becoming L's successor, it seemed like too much work and not enough amusement, and perhaps this was the main reason he and Mello got along so well.

"Where's your gameboy?" Mello asked in way of greeting as he approached the eight year old. The only times he saw Matt without that thing was just before bed, when he was bathing, or when Roger took it away to make him pay attention in class. Even if he wasn't playing it, the square bulge was usually somewhere in his pockets, and Matt seemed almost odd without it.

"Roger took it away already," Matt shrugged, "I don't get to play with it on Halloween."

"Oh, right…" Mello didn't press to see why not, after all Matt didn't seem to upset about it. Rather, his smile seemed to have grown since Mello asked him. Not the expected reaction, but then, Matt wasn't one to get upset about things he couldn't change. "Did I miss anything important?"

"You missed decorating a trick-or-treat bag, early-morning hide and seek, and bobbing for apples." Matt counted off his fingers, "We're going to carve pumpkins in a few minutes, you're going to carve one, aren't you?"

Mello made a scoffing noise. "Why would I do that? Carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating is kid stuff." _I can't beat Near doing that._ He added silently.

"You're not a kid?" Matt asked.

"Not as much of one as you are." Mello replied. 2 years younger and an inch shorter, Matt couldn't think of a decent come-back before Mello continued, "Anyway, do you know where Near is?"

"Why?"

"I need to ask him something." Mello pulled the pumpkin sketch from his pocket and showed it to Matt, "I think he's trying to mess with my mind, make me mess up. He knows I don't like candy."

"You don't?" The younger boy sounded genuinely surprised, almost shocked, and his face was somewhere between fear and surprise.

"No…why?" Mello looked at him curiously, "What's wrong?"

"N…nothing, I'm just surprised is all, you never mentioned it before." Matt shrugged again, relaxing back into his grin.

"It's not that I don't like it," Mello began, feeling the need to reassure his friend at least a little bit for whatever reason caused Matt to panic like that, "It's just a nuisance. Sure, it gives you a quick rush of energy and maybe makes your brain work faster for a couple minutes, but then afterwards you feel lethargic and slow. Which may not be a big deal for you, but I have something I need to work for, I can't afford to eat chocolate until I know that I am the second L."

"Mello-kun?" Matt placed a hand on his shoulder, his grin vaguely nervous, "Calm down."

"Yeah, sorry." Mello looked away, the scrap of paper clenched within his hand. Still, who else would put the chocolate under his pillow, and for what other reason? Near was the only one who knew Mellow didn't want to eat candy, the rest of his friends-allies rather- only knew that the blonde didn't care about Halloween.

"What did you do now, Mello?" Soft and without tone, the voice came from behind him, causing Mello to start, then stiffen, before swiveling around to face Near. Mello had been expecting that the pale boy would naturally dress like a ghost, but instead he wore a green hat with a "stem" coming out of the middle, a padded orange body suit that covered his torso and a matching long-sleeved T-shirt and sweat pants. Sewn onto the body suit were two black triangles, a circle, and a half-sphere with jagged pieces Mello knew were supposed to represent teeth. The blonde couldn't help but laugh; true he wouldn't expect something quite as cool as in the drawing (which sported two pentacles for eyes, slits for a nose and a mouth shaped like a snake's face) but this costume made Near look about five.

Ignoring Mello's laughter, Near merely nodded at him and Matt before continuing, "The pumpkin carving contest is going to start in the kitchen. Are you two coming?"

_So that's it…he wants to prove he can carve a better pumpkin then me. The drawing is meant to mock me, and the chocolate is to…is to...err…tempt me. Near, you clever bastard, you want to humiliate me like always. _Realizing this obvious conclusion, Mello grabbed Matt's wrist, pulling him past the squash, "Of course we're coming. I will defeat you, Near."

Confused but nevertheless pleased, Matt managed to give Near a sheepish, helpless look as he was pulled into the kitchen.

"I thought you said carving pumpkins was for kids?" Matt and Mello had chosen two pumpkins set up next to each other on the large table, and were now busy making designs along with the rest of the children either with the poker or first drawing it with a marker.

"It is. But Near challenged me to it." Pausing, Mello looked at the paper again, a small flush of anger warming his body. _Damn Near, I didn't want to carve the stupid pumpkins, but you're making me. You know I can't stand losing to you._

"How do you know Near gave it to you?" Matt asked, not turning away from the design he was creating on his own pumpkin, "It could have been someone else. Maybe someone, uh, might like you?"

"We're all boys here, Matt." Finished with his design, Mello picked up a knife, ramming it into the pumpkin perhaps a bit harder then was necessary. "It has to have been Near."

Matt muttered something that Mello didn't hear, and the boys continued carving.

"Let me see yours Matt."

"No."

Mello blinked in genuine surprise. It wasn't like Matt to refuse something that wouldn't harm or inconvenience him. "I wasn't asking. Let me see it."

"No." Matt stood stubbornly with his arms folded in front of his squash, blocking the design from Mello's view.

"Come on, I showed you mine." Mello gestured toward his own pumpkin, where he had carved two of the eerie candy corn things with spider legs entangled, and if one squinted a little they could see how the legs were supposed to form 'Halloween' "It's only fair you show me yours."

"It's stupid."

"I don't care."

"No."

"Matt, quit acting like a baby and let me see it." Mello glared at the younger boy. Matt met his gaze for a few moments, then glanced at the ground.

"Alright." Stepping aside, Matt kept his eyes trained on the floor as Mello appraised his design.

"Matt?" Mello said finally.

"Yes, Mello-kun?" Matt looked again at the blonde boy, who's own eyes were still fixed on the pumpkin's features; two eyes cut out in the shape of stars, with two diagonally slanting lines for nostrils, and two oblongs squashed together which hadn't been completely carved out, but scraped paper-thin, then had what looked like a pattern of scales onto it save for two holes on either side that could be the snake's eyes.

"Why did you steal Near's design? You should have come up with your own face."

Matt stared at Mello, not quite sure if the elder was mocking him or just hadn't caught on yet. "That is my own design, Mello-kun." He said softly.

"But it was on…" Mello paused as it all became clear, "Oh."

"Yeah." The boy's blush was apparent even through the heavy caking of white make-up he had put on that morning.

"Why?"

Matt took Mello's hand within his own. "Because…" Closing his eyes, Matt raised himself up a bit on his toes, and kissed Mello's cheek. Taking a step back, the red-head looked sheepishly up into the blue eyes, his face almost as red as his hair.

Mello touched his cheek where Matt's lips had been, though to his fingers it felt just like the rest of his skin, to the blonde it felt warm and slightly tingling.

"I'm sorry."

Mello smiled, pulling the smaller boy into a hug, for a moment forgetting that they were surrounded by other boys, all of whom were watching with great interest, and forgetting about the pumpkin contest. (After all, murmured the treacherously obsessive part of his mind, Near never challenged him, so it didn't matter.) "Don't be."

**End.**

**A/N if any of you are wondering why Mello doesnt eat the chocolate and claims to not like candy, this is supposed to be how he got started on his addiction ;**


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